Coffee History

One cannot imagine the modern, fast-paced world without the awakening aroma and taste of coffee.

For years, decades and centuries, coffee has not only served to satisfy the taste buds, but the other senses as well. When we want to shake ourselves fully awake in the morning or keep us up late at night, the only answer is a cup or two of coffee.

Today, the coffee beverage as we know it has evolved dramatically with its most recent form being instant coffee :(

The earliest reference to coffee is in a legend featuring an Ethiopian goat herder by the name of Kaldi.

There is more than one version to the story. In one version, Kaldi noticed his goats eating berries from a plant that was known as Coffea, after which the animals became alive with energy. In another version, Kaldi brought some of the berries to Capucci monks who boiled them with water, thereby extracting its essence. It was then that coffee as a drink was discovered and used by the monks to keep awake for late night masses.

Kaldi’s story is of course a legend. What we do know is that in Ethiopia, people chewed coffee beans. Explorers of Europe later discovered the cultivated coffee plant in Yemen, where the people may have had trade relations with Ethiopia. It was ultimately the Arabs who came to be credited with the development of coffee beverage. In the 1000s, they started cultivating coffee in plantations. Eventually, they found out that it could be roasted or boiled with water. Through the years, coffee became so important to the Arabs that they would not allow foreigners to transport the plant to other places.

It is widely believed that it was in Damascus where coffee beans were popularly roasted for coffee in pans made of iron. In the 1500s, coffee became so popular in Turkey to the extent that even wives were given permission to divorce husbands who did not provide enough coffee.

Kiva Han, a coffee shop, was opened in 1453 and in 1554, a coffee house was erected in Istanbul.

Coffee beverages also became widely popular in many other places around the world. In 1607, North America got its first whiff and taste of the beverage when Captain James Smith introduced it to America.

The first houses for coffee also found their place in Europe. Italy had its first in 1645, England in 1652, and Paris in 1672.

In 1690, the emboldened Dutch grab a hold of a coffee plant from Mocha, an Arab port and brought it to Ceylon and Java.  By the end of the century, coffee became such a favored drink that its critics sought to end its dominance by having it banned by the Catholic pope.

The Pope, however, thought it thoroughly acceptable as a Christian drink :)

Today, coffee has become a regular household item.  It would be impossible to imagine the modern home, the modern family and modern man without coffee.  Although some may still seek to discredit coffee as an unhealthy drink, its popularity shows no signs of waning.

And recent health research sides with coffee, declaring it a source of anti-oxidants.